About

Inuit early childhood development places Inuit children’s development, health and safety in first place. In the absence of a standardized Inuit-specific early childhood education curriculum, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, together with the Inuit child care coordinators across Inuit Nunangat, have created this web-based collection of culturally and linguistically appropriate materials for Inuit children and families.

In this collection, you'll find a variety of materials, from policy manuals, teaching tools and meal plans, to activity ideas for children and original research on Inuit early childhood development. We hope these materials will prove useful to educators, teachers, childcare centre managers, service providers and parents living across Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland) and Canada.

The collection is an initiative of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national Inuit organization in Canada. It is a collaborative effort between ITK's Department of Health and Social Development and Inuit Qaujisarvingat (ITK's Inuit Knowledge Centre) to support knowledge exchange between Inuit communities and provide better access to information about Inuit early childhood development, child rearing and parenting practices.

Project oversight is provided by the Inuit Early Childhood Development Working Group which is composed of representatives from the following organizations:

Nunatsiavut Government

Kativik Regional Government

Kakivak Association

Kivalliq Partners in Development

Kitikmeot Inuit Association

Inuvialuit Regional Corporation

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada

To learn more about the collection, including how to use it, and the Who, What, Where, When, and Whys of the project, please explore the pages linked to from the right-hand sidebar.